For nearly four decades England's Martin Simpson has had few peers as finger-style and slide guitarist; his singing and writing are nowadays also uncommonly eloquent.

He is alone on Vagrant Stanzas – a very intimate set of songs and tunes, new and old, from both sides of the Atlantic…plus one from India.

Note: if you click any of the above images, you will see it much-enlarged, annotated, and in its particular 'correct' format.

Born in Scunthorpe in 1953, Simpson’s skills as guitarist and banjo-picker were spectacularly evident at a very early age.

So was his wide embrace – equally at ease with an old English folk epic, a Randy Newman song, an Appalachian banjo tune or a blues.

Simpson stopped showing off, decades ago.

His extraordinary instrumental skills now always serve the music’s best interests,.

Simpson the singer has become a very astute interpreter of fine lyrics, his own included.

Vagrant Stanzas was inspired by evenings of swapping songs over the kitchen table, with his friend Richard Hawley.

Martin Simpson is his new album’s only singer and player.

Most cuts are ‘live’, first takes.

One is a quietly stunning version of Bob Dylan’s North Country Blues.

Other highlights include Simpson’s own song in the persona of the bell that delivered an evil message at the opening of ‘Hitler‘s Olympics’ in 1936, and an exquisite slide guitar solo take on a song from northern India.

The standard edition has 14 cuts; the deluxe edition includes another 8, on a second disc .

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Details of each track are presented in the following order:

BROADCAST TIME TRACK NUMBER AND TITLE COMPOSER PUBLISHING AND COPYRIGHT DETAILS RECORDING COMPANY AND CD NUMBER distributor/ source details, like this, in lower-case ARTIST AND CD TITLE Duration of track Description of track, in lower-case.Where relevant, further info links to information, gigs/events/related programs

THE WEEKEND PLANET’ SUN 18.08.13

2205

THEME: details below, as per the original CD. This cut is also on these compilations:

2214CD CUT 9, ‘LAY DOWN YOUR SWORD’KATE FAGAN(PRESUMABLY) APRA/AMCOSKF1302in Australia through MGM: http://www.thegroovemerchants.comartist’s site: www.katefagan.comKATE FAGAN – ‘INNER NATURE’3: 42AUSTRAL COMP AND PERF: a love song about the need to get off one’s ‘high horse’ in order to pursue/enjoy a loving relationship.

He absolutely nails this quiet but very intense traditional song. This version is bitter and vengeful; more wistful/resigned versions also exist.

The song’s persona is a 17th century Scottish noblewoman, forever estranged from her formerly loving, former husband. He was gulled by the evil plotter who had her wrongfully accused of marital infidelity.

On both sides of the Atlantic the song is several centuries old, with many variants.It is also known as James Douglas and as Lord Jamie Douglas.

The Water is Wide and Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies are among the other songs to which this one has contributed ‘vagrant stanzas’:

A ‘blindfolded’ listener would likely guess – correctly - that ‘Particular, Peculiar’ was its guitarist’s composition. Here, one would likely – wrongly - assume it is the pianist’s (who introduces it, solo) or the double bassist’s.

2253CD CUT 3, ‘FOOTPRINTS’WAYNE SHORTERPUB NOT SPECWARNER MUSIC JAPAN WPCR-14911As I type this is a Japan-only release.It is available in Australia through Birdland Records: www.birdland.com.auPAT MARTINO WITH GIL GOLDSTEIN – ‘WE ARE TOGETHER AGAIN’4: 52 (excerpt)Quietly probing, spacious duet for Pat Martino’s electric guitar and Gil Goldstein’s electric piano.

The above description fits almost all of this all-duo album.

It is the 2012 sequel to the longtime friends’ celebrated 1976 duo set, We’ll Be Together Again.

11PM NEWS----

2305CD (DISC ONE) CUT 3, ‘SHEPHERDS REJOICE’18TH CENTURY ENGLISH TUNE BY JAMES LEACH. SEE TRACKNOTES, BELOW. ARR BY MARTIN SIMPSONSONG IS PUBLIC DOMAIN. ARR IS (PROBABLY) TOPIC RECORDS LTDTOPIC TXCD589In Australia, through The Planet Company: www.theplanetcompany.comworldwide: www.topicrecords.co.ukMARTIN SIMPSON – ‘VAGRANT STANZAS’1: 57This tune carries one of the best loved English carols/ Christmas hymns.

Martin plays it very lyrically on electric guitar, as an instrumental solo.

The carol’s words were written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), ‘the father of English hymnody.’

Its tune was composed by James Leach of Knaresborough, who was 36 when he died in 1798.

A handloom weaver, Leach was also a choirmaster and composer. There are three published volumes of his hymn tunes.

She knows she’ll never again see him; he is Napoleon Bonaparte, post Waterloo.

This does not ape Dick Gaughan’s unbeatable version – on Gaughan’s effectively/ethically unavailable debut album, No More Forever. Issued in 1972, it has long been unavailable as a ‘legitimate’ album, although bootlegs exist.

LIKE TO HEAR DICK GAUGHAN’S 1972 VERSION?

Given that the artist was ripped off and will get no benefit from purchase, I’d urge you not to buy any current CD or online version of No More Forever.

2322CD (DISC ONE) CUT 2, ‘JACKIE AND MURPHY’MARTIN SIMPSON(PROBABLY) TOPIC RECORDS LTDTOPIC TXCD589In Australia, through The Planet Company: www.theplanetcompany.comworldwide: www.topicrecords.co.ukMARTIN SIMPSON – ‘VAGRANT STANZAS’5: 45This song tells the story of Simpson and his donkey at Gallipoli, and also the back story of ‘John Simpson’.

2338CD CUT 6, ‘SONG OF THE OLD COMMUNIST’LEON ROSSELSON ROSSELSONGS FUSE RECORDS CFCD 002 no current Australian distributor.Rosselson’s albums available worldwide via http://www.leonrosselson.co.uk/records.htmlLEON ROSSELSON – ‘WO SIND DIE ELEFANTEN?’5: 33Leon’s English voice, with his own and Martin Carthy’s acoustic guitars, in 1991.

Written after the Berlin Wall‘s fall and the Soviet Union’s collapse.

This has a superb lyric, in which the ‘old fool’ rounds on the young smart-arses and their 20-20 hindsight.

The full lyric:

He was one of those dogged old menWho lived in the pastTelling stories you don't want to knowAbout how it was then, the hunger, the hardshipThe hopes and the struggles of so long ago

And we must have looked bored,For like sparks from the cinders,His eyes glowed with anger, his words seemed to burn;He said "I will be heard, for my life is not over;I've something to say yet, you've something to learn."

He said, "You, who have nothing at all to believe in;To you, whose motto is, 'money comes first';Who are you, to tell us that our lives have been wasted?That all that we've fought for has turned into dust?

"I was only a lad when we read that in Russia,The workers, the Soviets, had taken all power,And the man they called Lenin, who led them,Was our inspiration; his triumph was our finest hour.

"And I'll always remember how fear shook the wealthy,Like thieves who have just been caught out in their crime!But we, who had known only war and the workhouseRejoiced, that a new world was born in that time!

"You can't know what it meant, or the pride that we feltTo know working people, people like usCould shake off the shackles, could topple the palaces,Remake the world without ruler or boss!

"It was this kept us going, this dream of a new world,Through all those dark years of defeat and despairWhen we, who were proud to proclaim ourselves Communists,Fought for that world free from hunger and fear.

"It was, 'Down with the Means Test! No cuts in our wages!We want three pounds a week and a seven-hour day!'And there wasn't a thing that we got but we fought for it -Don't you know bosses give nothing away?

"And the strikes and the marches, the battles to beat offThe bailiffs and coppers when hope was still young.Hot heads and hot hearts, as we tested our power -'The Workers Triumphant', that was our song."

For a time he was silent, and lost in his memories.Then, but more softly, his words came again."P'raps we hoped for too much, p'raps the cost was too much -There are things I know now that I couldn't know then.

"We believed revolution was just 'round the cornerAnd we were the vanguard to bring it about!And the other Left parties, we classed as class traitors.Bourgeois social fascists, of that we'd no doubt!

"And then the times changed, we campaigned for the Popular Front.The old line might never have been.But we led the workers in combatting Fascism,Mosely in London and Franco in Spain.

"We believed we were History's chosen,And Soviet Russia, our future, our heart and our soul.And the Five Year Plan was a vision of plentyTo us who'd spent half of our lives on the dole.

"We knew of the trials and purges of course,And were shocked when we heard those old comrades confessBut yes, we defended the first Workers' StateIn the face of the slander and lies of the Press!

"And you, who have nothing at all to believe in;To you, whose motto is, 'money comes first';Who are you, to tell us that our lives have been wasted?That all that we've fought for has turned into dust?

"You may think we were duped, well we paid for our dreams;Broken lives, broken marriages, jobs lost and jail.Some lost heart in the Left, some betrayed us for medals There are always some turncoats whose souls are for sale.

"But the best of us never surrendered our vision.And we kept the faith through the bleakest defeat.D'you think that was easy, surrounded by hatred?The sneer of indifference, the hurt of deceit?

"And our lives were made rich by the cause that we fought for,The friendship, the fellowship, sharing one pain.To transform society, end exploitation,And that day will come yet - but not in my time."

Again he was silent, and what could we tell him?That the world now was different, that he'd had his day?That an old man's dreams were not our concern?But still, there was something he wanted to say.

"Now, when I look back, I see what we fought against.Homelessness, hunger, injustice and war.But what did we fight for? What dream did we strive for?I used to know once - now I'm no longer sure.

"But you, who have nothing at all to believe in;To you, whose motto is, 'money comes first';Who are you, to tell us that our lives have been wasted?That all that we've fought for has turned into dust?"

He was one of those lonely old menWho live in the past, telling stories you don't want to know.About how it was then, the hunger, the hardship,The hopes and the struggles of so long ago...